Anubis, Companion to Osiris (Cont)

By Lee McGiffen

The Hot and the Cool

The Pyramid Texts also call the polar stars "cool", to distinguish them from the non-polar stars which are "hot" because they are closer to the path of the Sun, the ecliptic. Just as the hot desert Sun rules the day, so the cool celestial pole rules the night.

"Thou art to purify thyself with the cool water of the circumpolar stars." (Utt.214, Sp.138)

"Cool it is for thee in the embrace of thy father, in the embrace of Atum." (Utt.222, Sp.212)

Under these circumstances, Atum is not a figure of the Sun but of the celestial pole.

The "hot" stars that come under the influence of the Sun are called the "sun-folk": "The sun-folk shall call out to you, for the circumpolar stars have raised you aloft." (Spells 138-139)

It is the circumpolar stars that raise the king up. Raising up means becoming a never-setting star. When the star first becomes immortal, its heliacal rising occurs on the northern meridian. The raising up is more than just becoming circumpolar. The shaman-priest wants to be raised to the pole itself. He wants to be a pole star.

The sun-folk could be either the ecliptic or equatorial constellations. Both are non-polar. These constellations are calling out to Unas because Unas has left them. He has left the southern non-polar stars to join the northern circumpolar stars.